A town in Washington prints its own currency on wood!

[thewayne]

The mayor had printed $10,000 worth of wood dollars on a printing press from the local museum on birch bark, something they did 90 years ago during the Great Depression, and they're issuing $300 a month to families below the poverty line. The wood currency can only be circulated within the town, and obviously you can't spend it at Amazon! The local merchants can turn it in to City Hall twice a month for full cash.

So poor people get stimulus, local merchants get stimulus, the city gov't is only out $10k.

Pretty good idea!

Apparently this idea has been used for a long time. The article goes into quite a bit of history of such scips. Cool stuff!

https://thehustle.co/covid19-local-currency-tenino-washington/

Comments

[thewayne]

It's an excellent way to bolster the local community.  And like you said, fun!